Bloody Lies//g.d~completed

Chapter 14

I walked into my house through the garage door. I put my keys on the bar and left my umbrella near the coat rack. Billy was lounging on the couch eating out of a bag of popcorn.

"How was your movie day with Margot?" He asked without taking his eyes off the TV.

"It was good," I said going to the pantry and grabbing a bag of dried fruit chips. "How was your day."

Dad shrugged. "Nothing much happened except having to take a surprise visit down to the harbor. I have a very big client coming."

"What do you mean?" I laughed.

"There's a very rich man, a lobbyist, coming up from Portland in a few days. He wants me to take some of the Maine Senate members on a fishing cruise for a few weeks."

"Weeks?" I asked shocked. "So he's trying to bribe them?"

"Yeah."

"How many days will you be gone for?" I asked.

"I'm not sure, maybe a week or less. It depends on how much the congress men like what they see."

"Seems cool. Have fun dad." I said while trying to escape the conversation. I love Billy and I love talking to him but I really want to know what the book Lisa gave me is all about.

I got away from Billy's questions and ran straight upstairs to my room to read the book Lisa had given me. I told him that I was going to bed early and that I didn't want to be disturbed.

I locked my bedroom door, turned on my lamp on the dimmest setting, and opened the book.

It was a journal written in Grayson's handwriting. The first letter on the first page was addressed to me.

Dear Emily,

By the time you read this, I will be gone. I have left for a reason. There's something coming.
Perhaps one day, I will see you again. But for now, I must hideaway. There is something not quite right in my world. Please understand.

Love,
Grayson

I clutched the book to my chest. Something fell out with a metallic clink. I looked onto the floor.

A necklace with a key charm was now sitting on my wooden floors. The charm was old and rusted, but actually looked like a real key and not just a cheap piece of costume jewelry. I raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

Other pages in the book were covered in stories and old photographs. Some pages even had original poems written on them. Some were even about me.

I continued to flip through the book until I came to a very peculiar page. Glued onto the paper was an excerpt from a book I didn't recognize. Some words and letters of the page were printed in bold letters.

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

I went into my desk and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. I looked into the journal and copied down every word and letter that stood out.

You, take, down, their, shadows, your, soul, in, d, ang, e, r, i, Love, u.

It took me about thirty seconds to put the message together.

You take down their shadows. Your soul in danger. I love you.

I felt my face go hot and my pulse quicken. It was a warning from Grayson. A secret message hidden away in a journal just for me. I got up and checked if my window was locked just in case.

Still distraught from Gray's message, I continued to go through the book. Again, there was another surprise waiting for me.

At the end of the book, there was a mass of pages stuck together. However, they weren't pages at all, rather a secret compartment. There was a key hole on the back of the journal. I stuck the key necklace that had fallen out of the journal into the lock.

It clicked open.

Inside was a train ticket and a note that said:

Get out as fast as possible